UTSA forum confronts thorny free speech questions

1of 3Students who couldn't make it into the Retama Auditorium to listen to U.S. Senate candidate Beto O'Rourke pose with him outside the Student Union at UTSA, Thursday, Oct. 4, 2018.Photo: Josie Norris /San Antonio Express-News

2of 3The University of Texas System Board of Regents voted to hire Taylor Eighmy, vice-chancellor for research and engagement at University of Tennesse-Knoxville, as the sole finalist for the next president of University of Texas at San Antonio.

3of 3Students at a UTSA forum on free expression include some who were critical of the university’s handling of hate speech incidents.Photo: /Staff

Even though recent incidents prompted the University of Texas at San Antonio’s president to issue statements cautioning against student misconduct, legal experts told 150 students at a forum on free speech there that the school’s relatively hands-off approach is appropriate.

Panelists from the Texas Attorney General’s Office and the University of Texas System said UTSA policy doesn’t interfere with student expression by requiring administration permission to hand out flyers, hold signs or walk around campus in groups promoting opinions.

“If you want a big event on campus with crowd concerns then you have to go through procedures to make sure everyone is safe but ... you guys have got it great,” said David J. Hacker, special counsel for civil litigation for the Texas Attorney General’s Office.

A few students, meanwhile, stood in the back holding signs protesting what they considered the university’s ineffective response to hateful speech. “UTSA and Administration are not immune to criticism! Listen to us!!!,” one sign read.

A leader of the protest, Edward Nicolas Cruz, 20, a junior, said the university didn’t do enough last year when a banner was hung from a campus bridge displaying a neo-Nazi group’s message. UTSA officials said they never determined who placed it there.

This month a physical altercation among students developed during a campus protest in favor of U.S. Supreme Court Justice nominee Brett Kavanaugh, which left damaged signs and an allegation of assault that UTSA police determined was “incidental contact,” university spokeswoman Christi Fish said.

And in September, UTSA President Taylor Eighmy condemned a campus display of vulgar banners, including one depicting a roadrunner raping a bobcat, the respective mascots of an upcoming UTSA football game against Texas State University.

“When Republicans and Democrats are fighting over an appointment to the Supreme Court, there’s legitimate differences of opinion. Any time you get two groups of people that disagree, they’ve probably both got some good points. Be open minded. Talk to them. Discuss these things,” said panelist John L. Watts a law professor at Texas Tech University. “But to have that sort of discussion break out into pushing and shoving is just stupid.”

Wednesday’s forum was not prompted by recent events, though it was “certainly timely,” said Kimberly Andrews Espy, the UTSA provost and vice president for academic affairs. When Eighmy took office last year, he identified civil discourse as a topic he wanted to emphasize, and the forum was part of that, she said.

“Especially with social media and the country being so polarized, people are narrowing their interests and universities serve a critical role in helping students learning to become engaged in the system,” Espy said.

A Gallup-Knight Foundation survey of more than 3,000 students nationwide found a majority believed schools should restrict hate speech.

Cruz and his group represent a “perfectly reasonable” example of peacefully expressing an opinion in an appropriate time, place and manner, Hacker said.

But Watts, in a reply to a remark by Cruz, said the university and government entities should not punish speech.

“The administration is doing what they’re required to do by the Constitution,” Watts said. “They’re required to allow speech you hate, speech that’s despicable, as bad as it is.”

Cruz said he knows students who have suffered emotional distress and felt threatened and endangered as a result of hateful speech at past demonstrations. He asked panelists how the university can balance that with protecting students’ education.

“I think it’s a real challenge for universities to try to figure out,” responded Daniel H. Sharphorn, Vice Chancellor and General Counsel at the UT System. “It’s a great question. I don’t have the perfect answer.”

Hacker said universities have made strides toward helping students, including adding counseling services.

“I think it’s something that university administrators struggle with, but they want to do the right thing,” he said.

Krista Torralva joined the Express-News in 2018 as an education reporter.

She previously covered federal and state courts at the Orlando Sentinel and Corpus Christi Caller-Times.

Krista was often the new kid in class while her father’s military service sent her family to different parts of the country and Europe. She graduated from Flour Bluff High School in Corpus Christi and calls South Texas home. Krista returned to Corpus Christi after attending the University of Texas at Arlington.

For the Caller-Times, she co-led an award-winning series about domestic violence. Her reporting uncovered flaws in the police and court procedures, but also offered solutions based on practices in other parts of the state and country.

Her experience observing the criminal justice system exposed her to the social emotional learning needs of children, a topic she is passionate about on the education beat. On her new beat, she often seeks advice from her mother, a kindergarten teacher in Corpus Christi.